Red Dot Design Museum

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Red Dot Design Museum in the former boiler house

The Red Dot Design Museum is a project run by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen e. V. operated design museum in Essen . The museum has been located in the former boiler house of the Zollverein colliery since 1997 , which was redesigned by Norman Foster for the new purpose.

history

founding

On July 30, 1954, on the initiative of Carl Hundhausen , head of the press and advertising department at Friedrich Krupp AG , the Industrieform e. V. founded in Essen . The purpose of the association was to look for good form and to show it in an exhibition. “ 'Industrieform' documents that there need not be a so-called 'Gelsenkirchen Baroque' in the Ruhr area; that the forms and things with which one can live decently, well and honestly, yes also beautifully, are there. “( Gerhard Schöne : Süddeutsche Zeitung of October 12, 1955). In a competition, now known as the Red Dot Design Award, which was announced annually from now on , industrial products were first selected by a jury in 1955 . The first members included Otto Bartning , Jupp Ernst , Alfred Hentzen , Walter Passarge , Hermann Schardt , Mia Seeger and Hans Schwippert .

On October 5, 1955, the permanent exhibition of elegant industrial products was opened in the small house of Villa Hügel , the headquarters of the Krupp family . It was regarded as a sample presentation with a role model for industry and consumers and was part of Krupp's image change after the Second World War. “ The Villa Hügel, which has often evoked negative associations as a symbol of German militarism and the dominance of German heavy industry, was to become a figurehead of German modernity and openness. “( Heinrich Theodor Grütter (Ed.) : From Haus Industrieform to the Red Dot Design Museum. An Essen Design History. Small Writings of the Ruhr Museum, Volume 3. Klartext Verlag, Essen, 2015, p. 27) 665,000 visitors saw the exhibition in the first five years. Companies quickly appreciated the participation in the competition and the award. They paid rent for the exhibition space and thereby financed the activities of the association.

Change of location and further development

When the Krupp company was planning a museum on the company's history in the small house of Villa Hügel for its 150th anniversary in 1961, the Industrieform association was dismissed. The product exhibition moved to the Old Synagogue , expanded to include design presentations from other European countries. After a short circuit on January 18, 1979, a fire destroyed most of the collection.

With the reopening on November 9, 1980 in the Amerikahaus Ruhr and special exhibitions on the design of plastic bags, car stickers and practical solutions, the association also aimed directly at consumers. In addition, the design talks held for the first time with Herbert Hirche in 1978 created a discussion platform on the economic function of design.

From 1988 the former city library offered more space. The content was also reoriented: design as a means of corporate success. In 1990 this led to the name being changed to Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen . The role change was achieved through involvement in regional business management and start-up funding from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia . The new corporate design designed Otl Aicher in the form of a black and orange dot that was to accompany the logo. From this, the red dot developed in 1991 as a symbol of the award of the design competition, which was revised by Kurt Weidemann in 1994 . In 1993, the German Prize for Communication Design was launched, known today as the Red Dot Award: Communication Design .

In the early 1990s, the Zollverein colliery , which was closed in 1986, was discussed as a design location. The Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen became the first anchor tenant. On April 29, 1997 , the design exhibition opened in the former boiler house.

Umbrella brand

When Peter Zec took over the management of the Design Center North Rhine-Westphalia in 1991, he changed the color of the dot in the institution's logo to red, inspired by the red dot that shows a picture in galleries as sold. Up until the year 2000 , each winner translated "Red Dot" into their respective mother tongue. Zec established the internationally uniform designation in Red Dot . Peter Schmidt designed the brand identity , including the red dot in the form of a sphere. Since then, design competitions, publications in the company's own publishing house, design portals and three design museums have been operating under the umbrella brand Red Dot .

architecture

The boiler house is a three-aisled steel framework hall. It was built in 1928/29 by the architects Fritz Schupp and Martin Kremmer in the New Objectivity style and served the Zollverein colliery as an energy center. The narrow central nave protrudes over the aisles and is accentuated in the front view by a stair tower in front of the hall. At the side, the elevated part of the central nave is accompanied by half-height, narrow attachments above the side aisles, which extend over the entire depth of the hall and give the gables of the boiler house a stepped shape. In the side aisles there are five vertical tube boilers, one of which has been completely preserved.

For use as a design museum, the building was converted according to plans by Norman Foster . The architecture today is characterized by the steep-tube boilers, which have been preserved as a historical monument and which the architect gutted, rusty steel girders, red brick walls, cantilever galleries, concrete and a glass elevator. The stoker stand in the central nave is the distinctive center of the building.

  • Entrance to the museum

  • Exhibition galleries

  • view from above

  • Exhibits in old fixtures

Exhibitions

The Red Dot Design Museum shows around 2,000 exhibits of contemporary design on around 4,000 square meters. The exhibition is considered to be the largest of its kind in the world. In addition to the permanent exhibition, special and traveling exhibitions provide information about cultural or country-specific features and current design trends. To convey design quality, all exhibits can be touched.

Permanent exhibition

The permanent exhibition includes exhibits that have received an award in the Red Dot Design Award . It includes objects of contemporary industrial design from different areas such as furniture , lights , household appliances , entertainment electronics , medical technology or vehicles . Everyday objects from around 45 nations are represented.

Once a year, a jury made up of design professors, designers and specialist journalists assess the competition entries for the Red Dot Design Award according to design criteria such as degree of innovation, functionality, durability or self-explanatory quality. All award-winning products are shown in a special exhibition. They will then be part of the permanent exhibition for at least one year.

The highlights include a. the all-aluminum body of an Audi A8 from 1993 hanging from the ceiling , as well as the "Spacewalker" lights by the Belgian manufacturer Dark NV from 2009 and a seven-meter-high sculpture made of paper sheets based on a design by Yao Yingjia, chief designer at the PC manufacturer Lenovo ( 2013).

Special exhibitions

Newly awarded products are presented separately for four weeks in summer. A separate exhibition shows the communication designs awarded in the Red Dot Design Award . Additional exhibitions are devoted to topics, countries, trends, designers and brands, such as the retrospective on Tõnis Käo (2016), presentations on design trends from Taiwan or on smart materials .

Traveling exhibitions

The Red Dot Design Museum shows country-specific or themed collections at locations in Germany and abroad, most recently at the Design Forum Vienna , Museum for Communication Berlin , Xiamen International Conference & Exhibition Center (XICEC), Hong Kong Design Institute (HKDI) or Cube Design Museum, Kerkrade .

More locations

Since 2005 the Red Dot Design Museum in Singapore has been exhibiting concepts and prototypes that received a prize in the Red Dot Award: Design Concept . Prize winners from the fields of products and communication design can also be seen. The museum is part of the red dot traffic , creative center of the city-state , formerly the seat of the main headquarters of the traffic police. In 2013 , another location opened in en: Songshan Cultural and Creative Park in Taipei . In 2016, the Red Dot Design Area Taipei became part of the Taiwan Design Museum. Changing exhibitions on product and communication design are shown.

See also: List of sights in Essen

Web links

Commons : Red Dot Design Museum Essen  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heinrich Theodor Grütter (ed.): From Haus Industrieform to the Red Dot Design Museum. An Essen design story. Small writings of the Ruhr Museum, Volume 3. Klartext Verlag, Essen, 2015, p. 24
  2. ↑ Frank A. Reinhardt, Claudia Wanninger: The red line. Looking for excellence in design. av Edition, Ludwigsburg, 2005, p. 21
  3. ^ Heinrich Theodor Grütter (ed.): From Haus Industrieform to the Red Dot Design Museum. An Essen design story. Small writings of the Ruhr Museum, Volume 3. Klartext Verlag, Essen, 2015, pp. 25f
  4. ↑ René Zey: Design Center North Rhine Westphalia eV Design Lexicon International. Retrieved August 12, 2016 .
  5. ↑ Sbl. in: Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung, No. 250, October 25, 1960
  6. ^ Heinrich Theodor Grütter (ed.): From Haus Industrieform to the Red Dot Design Museum. An Essen design story. Small writings of the Ruhr Museum, Volume 3. Klartext Verlag, Essen, 2015, p. 34
  7. ↑ hck in: Ruhr-Nachrichten, No. 53, March 2, 1960
  8. ^ Heinrich Theodor Grütter (ed.): From Haus Industrieform to the Red Dot Design Museum. An Essen design story. Small writings of the Ruhr Museum, Volume 3. Klartext Verlag, Essen, 2015, p. 42
  9. ↑ Eberhard Bruse / Fritz Pohl in: Frankfurter Neue Presse, January 19, 1979
  10. ^ Heinrich Theodor Grütter (ed.): From Haus Industrieform to the Red Dot Design Museum. An Essen design story. Small writings of the Ruhr Museum, Volume 3. Klartext Verlag, Essen, 2015, p. 54
  11. ^ Heinrich Theodor Grütter (ed.): From Haus Industrieform to the Red Dot Design Museum. An Essen design story. Small writings of the Ruhr Museum, Volume 3. Klartext Verlag, Essen, 2015, p. 57
  12. ↑ René Zey: Design Center North Rhine Westphalia eV Design Lexicon International. Retrieved August 12, 2016 .
  13. ^ Heinrich Theodor Grütter (ed.): From Haus Industrieform to the Red Dot Design Museum. An Essen design story. Small writings of the Ruhr Museum, Volume 3. Klartext Verlag, Essen, 2015, p. 58
  14. ^ Heinrich Theodor Grütter (ed.): From Haus Industrieform to the Red Dot Design Museum. An Essen design story. Small writings of the Ruhr Museum, Volume 3. Klartext Verlag, Essen, 2015, p. 59
  15. ↑ René Zey: Design Center North Rhine Westphalia eV Design Lexicon International. Retrieved August 12, 2016 .
  16. ^ Heinrich Theodor Grütter (ed.): From Haus Industrieform to the Red Dot Design Museum. An Essen design story. Small writings of the Ruhr Museum, Volume 3. Klartext Verlag, Essen, 2015, p. 59
  17. ^ Walter Buschmann: Zeche Zollverein 12. Boiler house. Rheinische Industriekultur eV Accessed on August 12, 2016 .
  18. ↑ Delia Bösch: Discover the Zollverein. Out and about on the world cultural heritage. Delia Bösch Verlag, Essen, 2006, p. 26 ff
  19. ^ Projects / Essen Design Center, Germany 1992 - 1997. Foster + Partners. Retrieved August 12, 2016 .
  20. ^ Jutta Westmeyer: Merian live. Eat. Travel House Media, Munich, 2007, p. 81
  21. ↑ Jörg Hempel: Design Center NRW, red dot design museum, Essen (photo series). Jörg Hempel Photodesign. Retrieved August 12, 2016 .
  22. ↑ Red Dot Design Museum. Ruhr tourism. Retrieved August 12, 2016 .
  23. ↑ Red Dot Design Museum. Red Dot GmbH & Co. KG Design Publisher. Retrieved August 12, 2016 .
  24. ^ Heinrich Theodor Grütter (ed.): From Haus Industrieform to the Red Dot Design Museum. An Essen design story. Small writings of the Ruhr Museum, Volume 3. Klartext Verlag, Essen, 2015, p. 44
  25. ↑ Red Dot Design Museum. Red Dot GmbH & Co. KG Design Publisher. Retrieved August 12, 2016 .
  26. ↑ Red Dot Design Museum. Red Dot GmbH & Co. KG Design Publisher. Retrieved August 12, 2016 .
  27. ↑ Red Dot Design Museum. Red Dot GmbH & Co. KG Design Publisher. Retrieved August 12, 2016 .

Coordinates: 51 ° 29 '15.8 "  N , 7 ° 2' 42.4"  E